Children are the builders of a nation's future. At times when Afghanistan is in dire need of future and present builders, unfortunately the suffering of children in this country is multiplying with the passage of each year. We hear news of brutally that grab children in various shapes and forms almost on daily basis.

Children are too innocent to be used for sexual satisfaction or launching suicide attacks. Such acts are inhumane and strictly prohibited in all religions. There are UN conventions for protecting the rights of children. When one sees the concerning condition of children living in third world countries, all those conventions seem futile and only paper works.

Afghanistan is a country where children are deprived of their basic rights and subjected to various sorts of social crimes. Millions of Afghans work as laborers from dark to dawn. Some of them have to face the worst kinds of jobs. They are used to sell drugs and for sexual satisfaction.

Lately there have been some heart-wrenching reports about children falling victims of sexual abuse in Afghanistan. On Sunday, police arrested a man for sexually abusing a 3 year old boy in Northern Province of Takhar. In Mazar e Sharif of Balkh province a five year old girl was hospitalized after being wildly raped by a man. Meanwhile, a teenage boy was killed in Hirat province after being sexually abused. Such crime, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), says has increased 20 percent in the current solar year.

Children are used to carry out terror attacks, which is another disappointing story in Afghanistan. Afghan children are increasingly falling victims in hands of terrorists. They are either being unreasonably killed or used as suicide bombers. Last year the US based Human Rights Watch said that younger and younger children were being used in suicide attacks and calling it an "alarming" trend.

Afghan children already suffer due to poverty and lack of access to their basic rights such as getting education and health services, crimes where children are involved and their sexual abuse will only add to their anguish.
Civil society, human rights and UN must raise voice against growing suffering of children in Afghanistan.

At the same the Afghan government must take working measures to protect children from such evils and chalk out plans to improve their condition or else Afghanistan will never have a better future.